Dambisa Moyo - asking tough questions about aid to Africa

My recent post highlighting some of the complexities of travel philanthropy draws, among other sources, on my own direct and indirect experience with a number of tourism development projects. I mention in passing the broader issue of donor funding and aid, but this is where the big stakes lie, with the health, welfare, GDP and future trajectories of entire nations, regions and cities on the agenda. Tourism is a relative latecomer and a minor player on the donor-aid-philanthropy scene.

One of the recent books to receive mainstream attention on the broad topic of aid to Africa is Dead Aid by Dambisa Moyo, a Zambian-born economist and policy wonk with degrees from Harvard and Oxford. She's highly critical of aid programmes, and a supporter of microfinance approaches to investing, but this is glossing a broader and more thorough case that she makes.

The NY Times called her the "Anti-Bono", while the Guardian agrees that she's "asking the right questions" even if they're uncomfortable with all of her answers. A good list of early, authoritative, critical reviews of her book from a number of different perspectives is provided on the Bottom Billion blog, including a rigorous point-counter point from ONE, as well as others from Aid Watch and a "non-ideological" critique from David Roodman at the Centre for Global Development (be sure to read the comments to his post).

Moyo's perspective is one of many, but her credentials, experience and ability to straddle both African and Western cultures make her an authoritative contemporary voice that doesn't fall neatly into Western conventional definitions of liberal and conservative politics or ideology.

Dambisa Moyo - asking tough questions about aid to Africa